Scott Derrickson, director of Apple TV+’s new The Gorge, is best-known for directing horror films he co-writes, including The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Sinister, and The Black Phone. When he takes on a project he didn’t write, like The Gorge, there’s one main thing he looks for in a script.

“I’m looking to be surprised,” he tells MovieMaker.

The Gorge, starring Anya Taylor-Joy and Miles Teller as assassins on a mission to protect a mysterious gorge, is written by Zach Dean (Fast X, The Tomorrow War) and combines romance, comedy, sci-fi, and horror. Sigourney Weaver also stars.

“I’m like most seasoned moviegoers right now where what I want is something unique, something I haven’t seen before,” says Derrickson. “Especially if you’re talking about a big budget. In this case, it wasn’t a franchise film, it wasn’t a sequel, it wasn’t an IP. It was an original story. That was a big part of the draw for me.”

Teller plays the taciturn Levi, and Taylor-Joy the more emotionally available Drasa. The film used the augmented reality tool Cyclops to visualize computer-generated images in real time, which aided the production process. 

“Cyclops really allows you to treat the virtual reality as though it were a physical reality with all the compositional and lens choices that you have to make,” Derrickson says.

We spoke with Scott Derrickson about keeping shots interesting, Miles Teller’s militaristic commitment, and Anya Taylor-Joy’s bold choices.

Scott Derrickson on Directing The Gorge

Sonya Alexander: How did The Gorge script end up on your desk?

Scott Derrickson: It was sent to me by Skydance Media’s CEO David Ellison and his team. I’d known their chief creative officer, Dana Goldberg for a long time. She sent it to me and said they’d really like me to direct it. 

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Sonya Alexander: You shot a lot on location in the U.K, right? What are the challenges of shooting on location?

Scott Derrickson: It’s always more difficult. It’s cold. You spend a lot of time walking up muddy slopes. … We shot a lot of outdoor stuff. It’s always a bit grueling to do that. It also lends so much reality to the movie and makes it feel tactile and like a real place, because it is a real place. 

Sonya Alexander: Do you prefer shooting during the day or at night? 

Scott Derrickson: Everybody prefers shooting during the day. [Laughs.] My experience is that the crew will move a third less fast during the nighttime. There’s just not much you can do about it. 

The Gorge Director Scott Derrickson on Preparation

Sonya Alexander: Is there any difference in preparing for a film that’s going to be streamed as opposed to on the big screen? 

Scott Derrickson: Yes. I didn’t know 100% which it was going to be. There were conversations about both. I really shot the movie so that it would work on both. I think the biggest difference is that you do compose more close-ups if something is just going to be streamed, because there’s going to be a lot of viewing of it on smaller devices and things that are not comparable to a theatrical experience. 

In this movie, I shot it in 1.85:1. One of the reasons was because I really prepared for it to work either way. We’re going to premiere it in a theater here in L.A. I’m looking forward to that. But I also don’t feel like anything is being compromised for the home viewing system. I also shot the movie so that it would really be a satisfying cinematic experience on home viewing.

Sonya Alexander: Do you prepare any differently for scripts that aren’t yours?

Scott Derrickson: Yes. They take a lot more effort in preparation. You have to read them over and over again. You have to really absorb them. I did it once before, and that movie was not a great experience. In this situation, I had to read it repeatedly and did a fair amount of rewriting until I felt like I knew it like it was my own. 

Normally, that’s just instinctive when you’ve written it. You invented it, so it’s already in your head. You can see the movie. When it’s somebody else’s, you have to start from scratch and invent it all based on somebody else’s vision. That takes more effort. 

Sonya Alexander: What are the strengths and weaknesses of Drasa and Levi’s characters?

Scott Derrickson: I think that what’s interesting about them is they both have a kind of loneliness. But I like the fact that Levi has a much greater vacancy in him because he didn’t have what Drasa had, which was a close confidante in her father, who helped her to cope with the moral challenge of what she did for a living. 

I think the moment of him saying, “Give me your shame,” and taking the cartridge from her is one of the more beautiful moments in Zach’s script. She has much more strength of character and confidence and wholeness as a person than he has, and she’s able to really contribute to his life because of that, and it’s clear that that comes from the relationship she has with her father. 

Levi had a close relationship with his father, but we don’t know much about that, he kept that secret. 

Sonya Alexander: What strengths do you think Anya and Miles brought to the roles?

Scott Derrickson: Miles brought a lot of fidelity to military character. He knows a lot of people in the armed forces. His closest friend is, I think, a member of Seal Team 6. He was very committed to everything being very specifically accurate as a soldier. That was very important to him. … That really made a difference in the character and in the film. 

I’ve worked with a lot of great actresses… AcademyAward-winning actresses. Anya might have more natural raw talent than any actress I’ve worked with. She constantly surprised me with the choices she’d make. I’d set a scene up, and on the first take she would just do something so unexpected, that was so creative and interesting. 

And that’s what acting is, acting is choices. When you have an actress who instinctively makes one of the most interesting choices, even more interesting than a choice you’d give them as a director, then you’ve got something really amazing. And she did that a lot in this movie. 

Sonya Alexander: Had you used the Cyclops Augmented Reality system before? 

Scott Derrickson: No, that was the first time I’d done it. It really worked. You create this virtual world… and keep in mind it’s not a CG world. What was created in that space was real photography. We went to Norway. We photographed rock walls and trees and forests and canyons… and then constructed the virtual gorge reality from that photography. 

But to be able to point a camera when they’re out on the balcony… and to frame them up and know exactly what that landscape behind them is going to look like… you can make lens selections based on that. You can make the best possible choice because it is going to look exactly that way when you finish the film. 

Sonya Alexander: What do you think the gorge is a metaphor for?

Scott Derrickson: On the most basic level, it’s a metaphor that goes back to some of the earliest literature, which is the metaphor of the underworld and the idea of the underworld being something that speaks to, I think, our shadow-selves — that Jungian dark side which Levi in particular is really grappling with throughout the movie. The going under the surface into this fantastical underworld and then going under the surface of oneself to reveal one’s own secrets and fears.

I think that’s where the physicality of the gorge and the characters meet. 

Sonya Alexander: What kinds of angles did you use to create tension when characters are so far apart?

Scott Derrickson: That was a lot more challenging than I was expecting. I didn’t storyboard those scenes. After the first day of shooting I was like, “Oh, no. This is going to be so much harder than I thought!” 

Every night I would finish shooting and I would go to this place where I would stay up for a couple of hours and really design the next day of shooting in detail because it’s so difficult for it not to become visually boring when you’re only shooting on character at a time. You can’t put two people in the shot. You also don’t have the actor responding to the other actor. 

They were on big sets. So, each time they were on that balcony, they’re 40 feet off the ground. You have to explain to them, “This is what Anya did on Tuesday, so this is what you’re responding to.” 

Sometimes I’d show them shots on an iPad and say, “This is what she does, you need to respond to it this way.” It was technically challenging, but also really thrilling to watch it start to work, and to start to feel a real connection between them. And also, just not to let that be boring. To create a rhythm of cutting and not go too slow, that was a great challenge. I think that part of the movie turned out very well.

The Gorge is now streaming on Apple TV+.